Page 44 of The Marriage Negotiation

Patrick sighed heavily. "Peter has always felt that he was better than me except that I always did better than him. Even in high school I got better grades than he did and it drove him crazy. I think that is part of the reason my parents spoil him so much, to make up for his shortcomings."

"This all seems a little extreme," I pointed out, "even for Peter."

I was surprised when Patrick turned toward me, grabbing both of my hands. There was an earnestness in his eyes, but it was tinged with sadness, and that made me very nervous.

"What?" I asked.

"Baby, I know you don't want to hear this, and I certainly don't want to tell you, but you need to know the truth."

"What truth?"

"In Peter's mind, once you two got engaged you became his. His possession, his toy, his whatever, but you were his."

"But we broke off the engagement when he ran away from the wedding." I certainly wasn't going to stay with a guy that left me at the altar to run off with his mistress.

"For you and just about every other person on the planet, that makes sense," Alejandro said. "To Peter, you belong to him and he doesn't give up his toys for anything."

I rankled at being called a toy. "He left me at the altar to run off with his mistress."

"And I am sure he fully expected you to be waiting there for him when he came back. What he does is his business. What you do is his business. Get where I am going with this?"

I just stared at Alejandro in absolute shock. He couldn't be serious. The world didn't work that way.

"Have you ever heard the child's saying "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine"?

I frowned, still feeling a bit confused. "Yes, but—"

"That's Peter in a nutshell."

When I turned to look at Patrick, he nodded to me. "Alejandro is right, Zaq. Peter doesn't like giving up his possessions even if he no longer wants them. You were supposed to be at home crying your eyes out because the love of your life left you at the altar. You weren't supposed to marry me and live a happy life."

My brow wrinkled as I frowned. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Honestly, I didn't think of it. I don't give Peter a lot of space in my mind and haven't for years. He just doesn't matter to me anymore."

Yeah, I could understand that.

"I also didn't think he would find us, at least not this quickly."

My frown deepened, my eyebrows almost touching as they drew together. "How did he find us? Could your parents have told him where we were?"

"I never told my parents," Patrick replied. "As far as they are concerned, I am still in Texas. I didn't even change my phone number."

"Give me your brother's full name," Delancy said as he pulled out his phone and dialed a number. "Name, birth date, all of it."

"Peter Scotton, born December second, nineteen-eighty-five in Los Angeles, California. Parents are Alan and Charlotte Scotton."

"Osaka, I need a deep dive on one Peter Scotton," Delancy stated before giving him the rest of the information. "I need toknow everything about him as soon as possible, especially why he is in New York. Call in Jazz if you have to."

Delancy nodded a couple of times and then hung up before looking at me and Patrick. "I should have something by tomorrow morning."

My eyebrows lifted. "Really?"

Delancy grinned. "I know people."

Oh, I bet he did.

"Do you want me to assign you a couple of bodyguards until this blows over?" Alejandro asked. "It wouldn't be a problem."

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